Still useless after all these years...or words to that sort of song...

So, here we are mid, well end of April and life has changed for the better in oh so many ways..by this time next month - or thereabouts, I will be Mrs John Rider and am excited by that thought! It has been such an exciting time and I want to record it, well it won't be for our posterity exactly but y'know!
I met John last November at a Singles dinner that was hosted by a mutual acquaintance - his friend, Michael who will always want all the credit for this marriage anyway! I only went because it was Indian food and I was assured it would be good - and it was - have you tried to get decent Indian food in the US??..not easy, but I digress...John only went (he hates Indian food) because Michael threatened to let his tyres down if he didn't...John broke his heel/ankle in many places in the late summer and was out of action for months and Michael clearly thought he needed to get out into the real world...so, I thought he was with the woman he was sat next to, we chatted..I thought it was tacky that he tried to get my phone number when I thought he was with this other woman..they did travel there together, mind you...I don't know! Anyway, he lost my number, I took his card, put it safely in my glasses case and the following week lost the glasses case at a party in Castaic...I blame Debra Parker for that - just because I have to blame someone and she was with me...
Anyway, he contacted Michael and extracted my phone number, he phoned me, we went out, had a good time and have now decided to spend forever together, it took me a while (at least a week) to see how special he was...it's all been like I've known him forever and our spirits recognised that in each other.. I love how I feel about him (get your sick buckets ready now...) Tom made a comment about whether I was 51 or 16 and I feel 16 in lots of ways, I never expected to feel like this ever again to be honest... and it's wonderful.I have not had a moment's doubt that this is the right decision - there has been no agonising over it despite the upheaval it will be to get him over to the UK....In fact I may write a novella about that when his visa is through...50 ways to prove you're American..none of them acceptable to the Passport Office!!!!!!
We are getting married May 21 in the Los Angeles Temple and then we are moving to live in the UK once my Fulbright year is over.I have got a return flight for July 2nd so I can go to Tom's graduation...hopefully his visa will be through by then and that will be the start of our new life in Wales. I have such mixed feelings about this year coming to a close...it has been a real challenge but so much fun - I have had a break from all the normal things that go on in my life and learned what I already knew in many ways about the importance of home and family and friends and having a sense of place. I can't wait to share that with John, for my friends to meet him..it has been strange to think that the only person from home who knows him is Deb.... however, all his firends tell me constantly what a great bloke he is - so others may have to take their words for it...as for me, I knows it, I feels it. Unlike Nessa I am not going for gothic look, neither will my Welsh Dragon tattoo will not be on show that day!(I;ve used up all the transfers Sue Griff and I had!) Neither will I be pouring myself into any frothy meringues (a la 4 weddings stylee. It is all going to be very nice and hopefully tasteful and sunny in my friends' Troy and Jim's back garden for the ring ceremony and reception...
Once again, I am going to close this epic episode with a commitment to keep it up to date...but I am terminally useless... I will try to post wedding pics tho...
Meanwhile here are some of us trotting round Utah and California!!!